Field Journal: 10 - 16 March 2019 - Under-Log Edition

After a rainy start to the week, we had long string of warm, sunny days - the first real taste of springtime weather here in Roy's Redwoods. This felt like a good time to focus on the critters who live under logs.

These sporangia beautifully demonstrate their anatomical structure. I hope you like vocabulary words, because I have so many vocabulary words.

The stalk is an elongated structure that lifts (or lowers) the spore-bearing part of the sporangium away from the surface it's growing on. Slime molds that don't have stalks are called sessile.

The hypothallus is the thin layer of tissue that connects the stalk to the surface. It's the part of the slime mold that the sporangium rises from. The hypothallus can surround just one individual fruiting body, or it may be connected to other fruiting bodies.

The sporotheca is the rounded, spore-bearing part of the sporangium.

The sporotheca is enveloped by an outer skin called the peridium.

When the peridium breaks apart, it releases spores and reveals the threadlike capillitium inside.

The cuplike portion of the peridium that remains in some slime molds is called the calyculus.

Lancetooth is another smallish mollusc - this one was about 3/4 inch in diameter. What they lack in size, they make up for in horror: This snail drills through the shells of other snails in order to eat them from inside. Tiny and terrifying.

The Desert Stink Beetle is the most common insect I find under logs. I caught this one chowing down on the splintered remains of another Lancetooth snail, under the same log as the snail above. I wonder, do Lancetooths predate on each other? And should I be calling them Lanceteeth? That just feels wrong. I'm sticking with Lancetooths.